The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Iago Zapletal, Co-Founder and CHO of Head Office at SXSW 2023

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

Iago Zapletal, Co-Founder and CHO of Head Office at SXSW 2023 HEADOFFICE.SPACE

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Okay, folks. So, we're here today at South by Southwest 2023. We're interviewing a lot of different booths that are down in South by Southwest and seeing what they're doing there, how they're doing it, and bringing you some of the most important innovative products and services that are out there in the marketplace.

Today we're talking with Lasso Health, and they're exhibiting at South by Southwest in booth number 1435 in the Creative Series Expo portion of their show and uh so we're talking today uh with the founder and we're going to be interviewing him on what their app does how they do it and everything else uh today we have hamed mizani he's the founder and physician of lasso health welcome the show hamed how are you thank you doing very well thank you chris there Welcome to the show. And give us your dot-com where people can find you on the interwebs as we get into what you do. So, lassohealth.com. I'm a practicing physician, and over the past 25 years in San Antonio, Texas, kidney specialists have seen all kinds of patients with severe illnesses, you know, in the hospitals, ICUs, and emergency rooms. And over time, I realized that what I can do as a physician really applies to one patient at a time. And if I

can create a system where the benefit reaches millions, then that's actually much more effective. So looking at what we have going on currently in our healthcare system is that the majority of people don't have access and those that have even insurance, health insurance, don't know how to use it, you know, with large deductibles and significant red tapes. But similarly, doctors on the other side, there's such a high overhead of operation that they're going extinct. And many of them are joining hospitals or even insurance companies. And what's missed here in the middle is the patient. How do patients navigate and survive? So Lasso Health wants and is going to change that.

And what is the catalyst that you're using to make that happen? So we've started the product on a sort of think of a triangle. On top sits a telehealth services, which is nationwide program, and it's membership-based. And best comparison is Netflix. You pay a monthly membership. You watch as many movies as you want, and you don't pay for those movies. Similarly, here, you pay for an individual $16.99 a month membership, and you can see as many times as you want your appointed primary care physician or actually access urgent care services within 20 minutes of activating that 24-7. You will have somebody call you back. And remember, one of the most important things is

mental health in our country. That is also in there. So, you know, being able to talk to a counselor, teen therapy is one of the products within that package. So here, just sitting at home, you can have access to all of that with a very low monthly membership. Of course, the take here is has to be mass use of this so that we can create another healthcare system, right? So that sits on top of the triangle. On the bottom left, we got also prescription cards, membership-based, that once you get that nationwide, you can have up to 80% discount on your medicines, even without insurance. That's the key. Think of removing insurance from this, right?

Wow. And on the bottom right of that triangle, then you have in-person visits. So anytime you need to see a doctor, that is fee for service. So, you know, docs, they have their own portal in the office, you know, they sign up on Lasso, become a sort of a provider. And there they can create appointments for patients to access, you know, discounted prices, but that is a la carte payment. And we, this way, what we've created is price transparency. Because, Chris, if I ask you right now, okay, let me ask you a question.

If you want to do an MRI, do you know what it costs? I don't know what it costs, but trying to find out the cost is nearly impossible, it seems. It is impossible by design. And, you know, we won't get into that but why is it that everything else that we buy has clear access clarity and price and healthcare doesn't we want to change that and and and we need the mass of people actually get on the app check it out actually apr April, we have a month free for the telehealth services component membership on top. Try it out and see how it works. And Lasso Health also partners with Walmart Virtual Health. So it's really trying to change do we see the way we see health care

so that's very interesting yeah yeah i mean you know i was talking to another guy uh earlier doing another podcast and the guy walked me through it and he said hey i got i got abdominal pain what do i do now and you know he walked through what he would have done now and what he would do having LASO. It was very interesting. Yeah, I was featured in Forbes about, I think, in 2012, 2011. And I had a really bad experience with a doctor who had almost killed me because of his resistance for giving me a penicillin and then trying to get referral money for referring me to the hospital for a bone scrape.

And it turns out I just needed better penicillin. And he almost created a condition where I would need a bone scrape. And the nightmare of going into, you know, setting an appointment two weeks out to see an ailment I'm having, sitting in a doctor's office for two to three hours and different things. I said there needs to be, you know, telemedicine that needs to come out. Why can't I just call or have a webcam conversation with people? And since then, companies like yours have been created to do telehealth. And I think this is really important for people to have because they can have immediate access to telehealth where it seems like a lot of doctor's offices are set up to kind of make it really hard for you to get through to them. You have a thing you're announcing

with a collaboration with Walmart Health Virtual Care. Tell us a little bit about that and how that's working. Yeah. So, you know, in our discussion throughout this whole process, Walmart Health approached us and said, we want to work with you guys and basically work on pricing, packaging this in a way that is accessible for majority of American population. American right populate and so the the platform of telehealth is is entirely working with them through our systems and I mean every doctor that you'll see on that app they're licensed in their state that they're operating right similarly counselors for the mental health they, they're licensed in their state. And then here's a point about your experience, right? So you called around, waited, went to see the doctor, waited in the reception office. Here, you don't have any of that. And guess what? Let's say you

choose a primary doctor on the telehealth service platform and you talk to that person you don't like that doctor for some reason well you can change them you can change them because it costs you nothing uh chris uh it's zero per per visit right so you made an appointment you talked and you know i i kind of as a doc i say this all the time there are patients that don't click with a particular doctor and there are others that do. We're human. You can find the one that you like, but you can do it at your convenience. And there is not additional fees that you have to pay. So, Chris, we really learned this in COVID.

So COVID was very bad. You know, I mean, killed a lot of people in the world and here in the U.S. but it taught us a different way of practicing medicine right so almost depending on the specialty of the doc or who you're going to see up to 80 percent of the visits could be done via telehealth right this is for outpatient care obviously not hospital right if you need to have a surgery or you need to have uh you know blood draws or dialysis or you know icu care obviously you have to be in the hospital but we're talking about outpatient care and what happens is many times people don't do it on time they wait wait and things get worse. A mild infection turns into osteomyelitis

or infection of the bone. Then it's too late, right? So I think we can remove care deferment. We can take the scary out of healthcare expense because the price is transparent. We can take away the lack of access, no matter where you live, in a city, in a small town. As long as you have internet and a phone, you're 20 minutes away from talking to a doc. So this way, potentially, this service can create the little platform nationally for everyone. Because almost everyone can afford $17 a month to have this coverage. But thinking even bigger than this, businesses, right? A little mom and pop shop, they got five employees, they don't have health insurance.

Well, try it out. You'll have something. With this, I am not saying that we need to abolish health insurance or not have health insurance. What I'm saying is that initial deductible that people always have to pay out of pocket, right? You know, 3,000 know three thousand eight thousand family which is rising constantly it could be addressed this way and you know with a very very low amount monthly membership which is you can cancel anytime if you don't like it yeah it's it's uh i love the telehealth medicine now some of the features of this are pretty interesting because you have it where it's basically a subscription model really when, when it comes down to it, right?

Right. Yeah. So, basically, for less than a dollar per day for the PR thing here, medical providers nationwide are available as needed. There's no restrictions on the number of appointments a patient can set. And it's not health insurance, so there's no copays, no surprise bills and no limits. That's the thing that I always hate about when I work with doctors is I don't want 50 million surprise bills from, you know, wait, there was a guy who walked in my room for five seconds and we're paying him $2,000 to look at me for a second or something. You know, I don't know what's, I don't't know what happened but i got a bill for it now yeah you know so uh doctors uh practices have an incredible overhead and expense in operation so whatever you pay that doctor you know is not going to his pocket you know he's really trying to

operate a number of staff that have to deal and fight with the insurance company to, to pay for that, for the visit. Right. And oftentimes we take care of up to 30% unfunded patients that there are services that are provided, uh, that you, you know, you got up to in the morning, you went and saw that patient and, and came home that you will never get reimbursed. So, uh, doctors on are under tremendous amount of stress as well. There's lack of staffing, there's lack of nursing, there is a higher cost of operation, and yet the reimbursement is the same, is unchanged, right? So we want to challenge,

we want to fix that as well. This is, it's almost like a different healthcare system. And it's driven by price transparency, access. Everyone in there knows what things cost and the patient chooses to who they want to see. You see what I mean? But it begins with a simple virtual platform for visits, which is membership-based. And again, I mean, the best comparison I can make to it is Netflix, right? I mean, when it came out, people were like, well, how come? Well, they're streaming movies.

We actually have a trademark on streaming healthcare because we want to get there and change the paradigm. And this is a great thing to have. So you've developed an app, and so people can do all of this through the app. Is the app in the App Store currently? Yes. So it's in Apple and Google Android platform, but it's also on website, you know, desktop website. You can access this and work on it. Chris, we're also very interested in talking to large employers, right?

Thousands of people that have, they have their own health insurance, right? But give us an opportunity and we can show you return on investment and lower your healthcare expenditure as an employer. So the premium for health insurance is arising tremendously every year. And so does the out-of-pocket that the employees have to pay to keep that same insurance. Right. So instead of on a Saturday or late evening having a cough, fever, you go into an urgent care center and and getting hit with thousands of dollars of bills and unknown, you know, surprise bills here. You get on your app and you stream health care. Right. And, you know, before you know it, you get your prescription sent to your pharmacy of choice and case closed. You know, as a doc, I know that just having access to doctors and nurse practitioners or PAs is not enough. You have to have prescription. They need to go get their meds. Right. And that's why on the triangle that i described

to you and the bottom left there is prescription access so nationwide uh we'll be giving uh uh you know um discount cards that you go to different pharmacies we're about to launch um i'm going to announce it here actually we're we're about to launch a segment of the app that you go in and you put your medicine that you're taking, a generic or brand, and you will basically, based on geolocation where you are, it finds you the pharmacies closest to you and lists the prices. Right. And then you choose which pharmacy you want to go. So here, not only you choose your doctor, then you choose which pharmacy you want to go so here not only you choose your doctor

then you choose your pharmacy and price transparent in both ways right so large employers get on the app let us come show you what we have and you will you know in this competitive market that we are uh for talent uh people are shopping around, employees, not just go and join a company because of salary and bonus, but also benefits. Health insurance is huge. There's one benefit to, I noticed it on the website, you have virtual primary care, virtual urgent care,

virtual behavior health, discount prescriptions. I imagine one of the ways this helps employers is the sooner that their employees can get care and get taken care of for whatever their ailment is, the sooner they can be working and not have time off. Is that correct? 100%. A hundred percent. So if you go on Lasso Health and you enter to the employer section and you enter a number of employees that you have, their hourly rate average, there is a formula that we've come up with that will calculate all of that gets calculated and you'll see in a predictive way how much you're saving and, you know, making your employees happy and making sure that them and their family are taken care of, right? Because if you have someone whose child is sick, they're not going to be thinking straight that day at work. You know, they're going to be calling sick. But here they get access to it 24-7 and they'll be there working Monday morning.

So employers are going to be playing a major role in moving this platform, even more than individual people. Because, Chris, if you reach out to decision makers and companies that have 10,000 people and they test it, right. And they like it. Well, for me to reach 10,000 individual alone is very, very difficult. Right. But if they start the paradigm shift, then other people hear about it. And, and, they just go and try it. Again, month of April is going to be free. So you go in there, put your email and you get to try it. There you go. And I love how employers can go on your website and they can calculate their savings by working with you folks. So that makes a difference as well. I really like this concept

and I think it's really coming to future. We know, we're seeing a Walmart of course is working with you. I know Amazon is trying to enter this space with some prescription models and some different things they're doing. And I think this is, you know, the insurance model has been broken for so long and I think this is a better way where people can get more instant care. Because like I said, I mean, even my dog recently, my dog came down with

assistant cancer uh and i needed to have her seen we we were being told a week to two weeks to get into her normal care doctor and it's like we need to see right away like this is a big deal and most people have ailments have that same sort of issue you know ch Chris, my daughter is in UT Austin, a college student, and in the dorm next to her, there was this young kid that jumped off the, you know, the roof and committed suicide. And I think mental health is something that I'm passionate about and people having the ability to talk. Right. So talk therapy and counseling is in the app. Right. So you're a parent and you want to make sure your kid is at least has someone to talk to other than you. Right. Because I'm a parent and you know how the kids are. They don't listen to you, but they listen to the neighbor. You're going to have professionals that are

trained and licensed in the field that they're practicing and give them the tools so they can talk to the right person. But as you said about your dog, you know, that's one thing that in the future I would like to get into, virtual telehealth for pets. That would be awesome. Because a lot of times you have a dog with a rash and they got this and that and you're going to take a picture, you upload a picture and you talk to the vet. Why not? You know how much time and money that saves you? Oh, yeah. I mean, I've had issues where, you know, in not all cases you have to do things and you're just like, hey, I really need this immediately looked at or I'm worried about this right now.

And it can help people get instant answers and probably resolve an issue that might not be as big as it is. You know, I've used telehealth in the past, but some of the telehealth I've used in the past is quite expensive. You have this great subscription model that makes it very inexpensive. I paid sometimes, I think, 75 to 150 bucks for a visit with a doctor. And this is much cheaper over the long run, especially if maybe you're someone who has a condition of ailments. Well, this is pretty interesting. Anything more we need to touch on before we go out? No, I think for people out there just to go on lassohealth.com or to the App Store or Google Android and download it and you actually can become a member and give it a try. You can cancel any time. There's no long-term contract.

And use it, right? And once you use it uh you realize the value and uh you know together we can create another platform of health care that doesn't include health insurance and all the red tapes and all the stuff attached to it there you go and i want to appreciate chris you giving me the time to come on your show and love uh listening to you i've been following uh one of your followers and and it's incredible thank you for what you do and thank you for what you do I've been following one of your followers and it's incredible. Thank you. Thank you for what you do.

And thank you for what you do. I mean, we need more of this. I love telehealth and I appreciate it more because I've got better things to do with my time than sit in a doctor's office for two hours waiting for them to see me. And, you know, sometimes you either don't like the doctor or whatever and you can pick what you want.

I really like this concept and I'm glad employers are embracing it as well because I think they see the value. Thank you very much for coming on the show. Thank you so much, Chris. Have a good day. There you go. And go to YouTube.com, Fortune's Chris Voss, Goodreads.com, Fortune's Chris Voss, and LinkedIn.com, Fortune's Chris Voss. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.